This study examines the symbiotic relationship between the development of transregional long-distance trade networks and the early long-distance transmission of Buddhism from northwestern South Asia through the territory of the Northern Areas of Pakistan to eastern Central Asia and China. Recent discoveries of thousands of graffiti inscriptions written in the Kharosthī and Brāhmī scripts and petroglyphs of Buddhist images along ancient capillary routes through the Upper Indus, Gilgit and Hunza valleys illustrate patterns of long-distance travel and cultural contact during the first millennium CE.
Inscriptions and rock drawings are situated in the contexts of the physical environment, religious traditions, languages, literature, and ethnography of northern Pakistan, which was a dynamic multicultural crossroads rather than an isolated enclave. An overview of regional history based on archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources focuses on migrations and political developments, particularly during the periods of the Sakas and Kusānas in the early centuries CE and the period of the Patola Sāhis in the seventh to early eighth centuries CE. The broad historical overview demonstrates that control of frontiers between northern Pakistan and neighboring areas of Afghanistan and Kashmir has been repeatedly contested.
A survey of graffiti and petroglyph complexes examines Kharosthī and Brāhmī inscriptions from Haldeikish and Alam Bridge in detail. Names, titles, dates, and formulae reflect the diversity of visitors and local inhabitants who recorded their arrival and sometimes drew auspicious designs. Buddhist images of stūpas, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and jātakas, often labeled “religious offerings” in Brāhmī inscriptions, established the presence of Buddhism at rudimentary shrines in places lacking stūpas, or monasteries.
Graffiti and petroglyphs provide evidence for capillary networks which directly connected the major arteries of the Uttarāpatha and Daksināpatha in the Indian subcontinent with the silk routes of eastern Central Asia, which were linked with overland and maritime networks for long-distance trade. High-value/low-volume trade in precious commodities was closely related to the process of early long-distance transmission of Buddhism from South Asia through the mountain transit zone of northern Pakistan, where surplus resources for supporting Buddhist institutions were initially unavailable.
